Seven Steps to Behavior Change
Research is showing us how to make lasting positive changes. Not everyone needs to make drastic changes, but here are some tips for helping ditch old habits that seem to dog us year after year.
Tanya, or anyone, please feel free to comment or chime in.
1. Develop strategy before setting your goals.
How can obstacles that hinder you be overcome? Start small and get those working.
2. Goals should be set as both short and long term.
They say that long-term goals are motivating, yet it is the short-term goals that will get you where you want to go. Changes in small steps are easier to accomplish than something sweeping that is difficult to stick with.
3. Best to set specific and measurable goals.
Research says that this is best course for better liklihood of staying on your program. Timewise, this is a better way to get started and change old habits.
4. Goal works better if it is process oriented rather than outcome oriented.
For instance, doing something to help lose pounds usually works better than an end goal of losing 5 pounds a month. (If you do not cut portions or walk every day, the end goal will not be achieved.)
5. Make your goal realistic for you.
Again research. Goals that are moderately difficult, yet within your capabilities, will have a better outcome.
6. There needs to be some FUN in this process.
Try new recipes, get new cookware, exercise as an activity enjoyable to you. Find a good environment for your exercise - there are many from which to choose.
7. Don't be afraid to adjust your program.
If you find that even the short-term goals are not working, ask why. What is blocking the change or the learning? Could you use counseling or some other additional support? Backtrack and try new goals.
I am sharing the above, as I have found these ideas useful in rehabilitating my leg/knee/back during my herniated disk and surgery recovery. This is the longest, hardest recovery I have ever had, and requires more mental and physical effort.
So, it is not an entrenched behavior, such as smoking, that I am working on, but movement through pain and discomfort, which is also very limiting. It is much more comfortable to sit in bed and read as the nerve down my leg heals. However, atrophy and loss of muscle elasticity have me quite motivated to stop and reverse that process.
Hope the above will also help anyone who is trying to come back after treatment and regain forward motion in their lives.
__________________
"When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest." H.D. Thoreau
Live in the moment.
MY STORY SO FAR ~~~~
Found suspicious lump 9/2000
Lumpectomy, then node dissection and port placement
Stage IIB, 8 pos nodes of 18, Grade 3, ER & PR -
Adriamycin 12 weekly, taxotere 4 rounds
36 rads - very little burning
3 mos after rads liver full of tumors, Stage IV Jan 2002, one spot on sternum
Weekly Taxol, Navelbine, Herceptin for 27 rounds to NED!
2003 & 2004 no active disease - 3 weekly Herceptin + Zometa
Jan 2005 two mets to brain - Gamma Knife on Jan 18
All clear until treated cerebellum spot showing activity on Jan 2006 brain MRI & brain PET
Brain surgery on Feb 9, 2006 - no cancer, 100% radiation necrosis - tumor was still dying
Continue as NED while on Herceptin & quarterly Zometa
Fall-2006 - off Zometa - watching one small brain spot (scar?)
2007 - spot/scar in brain stable - finished anticoagulation therapy for clot along my port-a-catheter - 3 angioplasties to unblock vena cava
2008 - Brain and body still NED! Port removed and scans in Dec.
Dec 2008 - stop Herceptin - Vaccine Trial at U of W begun in Oct. of 2011
STILL NED everywhere in Feb 2014 - on wing & prayer
7/14 - Started twice yearly Zometa for my bones
Jan. 2015 checkup still shows NED
2015 Neuropathy in feet - otherwise all OK - still NED.
Same news for 2016 and all of 2017.
Nov of 2017 - had small skin cancer removed from my face. Will have Zometa end of Jan. 2018.
|
Hugs, Joanne
Linear Mode
